Such. A. Bonehead.
It was like a scene from a movie. It was Monday morning and we hopped in the taxi to go to the airport. “You want to check and make extra-special sure we have the tickets?” I joked to the Snook. He got them out and had a look. “Uh, something’s wrong,” he said. He handed the itinerary up to me. I looked at our flight time, nope, all good there. Then the day: SUNDAY. As in: 24 hours previously. “WHAT? This has to be a mistake.” No, my friends, we friggin’ got the date wrong. I wish I were making this up. I hyperventilated all the way to the airport where we frantically called our travel agent Nick. I also found an Internet terminal and was able to trace down the mistake. We’d originally planned to go on the Monday and Nick had e-mailed through the itinerary. Then when we’d actually gone in to pay for the tickets, we discovered availability to leave the previous day. So we switched it. When I made my super-duper anal Google spreadsheet of all the trip details, though, I unthinkingly based it off the original e-mail. Hence, we ended up at the airport 24 hours after our flight had left.
I’ve got nothing but great things to say about Nick at Flight Centre and David at Qantas, though. The two of them were able to switch around our tickets (at, yeah, a not inconsiderable cost) and get us on the Monday flight. We also had to spend about seven hours hanging around San Francisco airport yesterday. But we’re here and everything’s okay. We made it.
Be sure to always check your paper tickets, kids.
missfee
April 4, 2007 — 7:58 am
I missed a flight just after new year cause of the time difference between NSW and QLD and had to buy a new ticket – not a fun experience
Hope you having a great time otherwise
M-H
April 4, 2007 — 8:34 am
Oh.My.Ghod! We are shaking here just thinking about it. Glad you got there anyway.
Amy
April 4, 2007 — 8:56 am
whoa! that’s insane. good to know made it though.
Rachel
April 4, 2007 — 9:24 am
tell me how utterly horribly sick did you feel when you read then re-read the date on the damn ticket.
How horrible.
I’m glad it all worked out well for you in the end.
I guess all those hours dealing with a-holes in retail taught you how to behave when you were lying prostrate at the feet of the Flight Centre/Quantas people.
Have a great holiday!
Bex
April 4, 2007 — 10:14 am
dont be mad but i had to laugh cos its something i would do…. 😉
the other andrew
April 4, 2007 — 10:47 am
And THAT’S why you always need to travel with a Virgo.
Glad you got there! Makes for a cool anecdote after the fact though, right? Have fun.
JulieB
April 4, 2007 — 3:15 pm
I had exactly the opposite happen in Hawaii – we actually left a day after I thought we were supposed to. Luckily there wasn’t a problem with the accommodation, and bonus days are the best.
I can’t imagine how you must have felt. I’m glad you managed to fix it!
Lara
April 4, 2007 — 8:58 pm
Fantastic! You’ve already had your disaster, you can enjoy the rest of the trip without worry of looming disasters 🙂
SlythErin
April 4, 2007 — 11:13 pm
My uncle did that once – but it was a small airport and it was only a weekly flight. Whoops…
Glad you made it safe & sound in the end, even if you did have a heart attack on the way.
tracey
April 5, 2007 — 10:49 am
That’s it! Next time I make flight plans I’m tattooing it onto my hand as soon as it’s booked. (I get so paranoid, can you tell?)
Kris
April 5, 2007 — 11:39 am
It was SO sickening, Rachel. And neither of us had our cellphone (and neither did the cabbie), so there was like a twenty minute cab ride where I couldn’t do anything but mumble and worry. That suuuucked.
It was just so annoying because I’d been incredibly anal about the preparations. I had a complete itinerary with all the flights and times; I had a To Do list with items for me, Rodd, and Both of Us to do; I had a folder with about fifty pages of printed confirmations, maps, and e-mails. And yet somehow I got the friggin’ day wrong. It’s ridiculous.
Morgan
April 5, 2007 — 3:24 pm
That reminds me of my last trip home to the states when my ticket was booked in my married name, but my passport was in my maiden name and I arrived at the airport only to be told that I could only get on the flight if I bought a new full price ticket in the name as my passport. Total disaster. Lots of tears, but like you, Flight Centre came to the rescue and I was on a flight – with no extra charge – the next morning. They even couriered my new ticket out to my house since it took a few hours to re-issue and they didn’t want me stuck at the airport.
Glad to hear everything worked out for you in the end as well.
Jason Young
April 7, 2007 — 4:31 am
I damn near have anxiety attacks every time I fly thinking I’m going to miss a flight or screw something up. Knock on wood, it hasn’t happened yet, but because of it I usually spend an hour or so waiting for my flight because I get there too early, paranoid of long lines in security checkpoints.
hank
April 9, 2007 — 8:41 am
On the road for four months now and touch wood, nothing like that has happened so far for us… (oh yeah, hi from New York!)
Oh by the way, remember that other time you forgot the date? 🙂